The Quiet Girl’s Secret

(Ruby's POV)

Some people are born with a spotlight.Sam Walker didn't just walk in the light — she was the light.

Everywhere she went, people noticed. They moved aside, they looked up, they smiled, they stared. I don't think she even realized it. That's what made it worse.

She didn't need to try.She just… was.

I saw her in the cafeteria again today.She was sitting with Alex, of course. Laughing at something he said — though honestly, Alex never said anything that funny. He had that loud, confident energy that made people mistake noise for charm.

But it didn't matter. Everyone thought they were perfect together. The power couple. The campus royalty.

Even teachers joked about it.

"Alex and Sam, the future golden duo,""I hope your kids play basketball,""You two make such a handsome pair."

I heard it all. I always heard it.

And every time I did, I felt something small and quiet break inside me.

I didn't have a problem with Alex. Not really.

Okay, maybe I did, but it wasn't personal.

It was just… the way he sat so casually next to her. Like it meant nothing. Like it didn't matter that he got to be next to someone like her. That he could talk to her, joke with her, touch her shoulder and not overthink it a thousand times.

He wasn't nervous. He wasn't stunned.He wasn't anything.

And I hated how easy it was for him.

Becky and Felix were talking beside me as we walked past their table, but I wasn't listening.

I was too busy watching Sam.

Her smile looked real.

Not big, not fake — just… soft. Familiar. Easy.

And I wondered, not for the first time, if maybe she'd already given her heart to someone else and I was just writing love poems to a ghost of a chance that never really existed.

We sat under the tree near the west block for lunch. I poked at my sandwich while Becky went on about how her chem teacher was probably a sadist and Felix argued that her grades had less to do with the teacher and more to do with her habit of drawing hearts in the margins instead of notes.

I didn't speak much.

I didn't need to. They were used to me zoning out.

Until Becky caught me glancing again.

"Still staring?" she said, voice low.

"I'm not—"

"You're literally mid-glance."

I sighed and looked down. "It's fine."

"No, it's not," she said gently. "You're making yourself miserable."

"She looked happy," I mumbled.

"With Alex?"

I nodded.

Becky didn't say anything at first. Just stared at me like she was choosing her words carefully.

Then, "You don't know what's real and what's convenient, Ruby. Don't let what it looks like stop you from saying what you feel."

Easy for her to say. Becky didn't fall in love with people from a hundred miles away emotionally.

Back home, I couldn't focus on my assignments.

I ended up in my drawer again. The same stupid drawer.The one that now held two small secrets:

One crumpled note Sam had thrown out (a schedule reminder with a half-doodle of what looked like a swordfish).

And one black pen with a tiny crack near the grip that I was sure had once been hers.

I didn't mean to keep them. At first, it was just a reflex.

But now… I didn't know how to let them go.

"She's never going to know," I whispered to no one.

And that thought — that reality — sat in my chest like a rock I couldn't move.

She was going to go on being the center of the world. She'd keep smiling at Alex and speaking over the announcements and probably never even say my name out loud.

And me?

I was going to sit here, in this tiny bedroom above my parents' restaurant, trying to memorize someone who didn't even know I existed.

Becky texted later.

you okay?

I typed:

fine.

Then deleted it.

Then typed:

do you think it's pathetic?

She replied in seconds:

no.I think it's brave.to feel this much and still stay quiet.

I didn't answer after that.

But I did open my notebook.The one I usually used for physics notes and little doodles and late-night ranting.

And this time, I wrote something else.

Something I didn't plan.

It started with:

Hi. I don't know if you'll ever read this, but—

And suddenly, the words kept coming.

Fast. Honest. A little embarrassing.

But real.

I didn't sign it.

I didn't even read it twice.

I just folded it, stared at it for a long time, and tucked it away under my pillow.

[End of Chapter 4]

She didn't know I existed. But this time… maybe my words would.